NEW YORK \u2014 Just your average Saturday in Midtown Manhattan, where Victor Wembanyama and Kevin Hart lounged shirtless in water-filled metal tubs, designed specifically for their body lengths, with the comedian asking the budding NBA superstar about working out with monks for two weeks in China.<\/p>\n
Yes, that\u2019s a lot to take in.<\/p>\n
The 21-year-old San Antonio Spurs center participated in two heavily attended events during Saturday\u2019s session of Fanatics Fest at Javits Center. First, Wembanyama bathed beside Hart for an episode of the comedian\u2019s podcast \u201cCold as Balls\u201d and followed up by sitting in \u201cThe Shop\u201d with LeBron James, Tom Brady and streamer Kai Cenat.<\/p>\n
Each setting brought out relaxed conversations, as well as some interesting questions from Hart and \u201cThe Shop\u201d panel to Wembanyama. Both forums focused on the curiosity about Wembanyama\u2019s trip to China.<\/p>\n
He tried to be casual about it with \u201cThe Shop,\u201d saying, \u201cI was just in China the last two weeks practicing with the monks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many in the panel from \u201cThe Shop\u201d chimed in, not letting the \u201coh, by the way\u201d answer slide, including Brady, who said, \u201cWe\u2019ve got to hear more on that.\u201d Wembanyama laughed and obliged. He visited the Shaolin Temple in Dengfeng, China, along with a member of the Spurs\u2019 strength training staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a great experience,\u201d Wembanyama said. \u201cMy goal going there was putting my body through things that it\u2019s not used to doing and allowing my range of movement and strength. This was probably as very different as possible from what I\u2019m used to doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
What did that entail?<\/p>\n
\u201cKung fu. Everyday. It was like a vegan temple, monastery. \u2026 I was isolated,\u201d Wembanyama said. He added that many of the meals consisted of zucchini and rice noodles. That meant sneaking out to eat some sort of meat to maintain his weight, which he told Hart is up to 245 pounds.<\/p>\n
The most notable physical change from the trip for Wembanyama is his hairstyle. The first thing the monks asked Wembanyama to do was to shave his head. He did so without hesitation. \u201cI\u2019m pretty sure I\u2019m Buddhist now,\u201d Wembanyama joked. \u201cIt was worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wembanyama didn\u2019t discuss his injury status after a blood clot in his right shoulder ended his 2024-25 season in February. It\u2019s expected he\u2019ll be ready for the start of this upcoming season, though.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also the first time Wembanyama has spoken publicly about Gregg Popovich leaving the bench as the Spurs\u2019 coach.<\/p>\n
Wembanyama admitted he was shocked when Popovich stepped down in early May after 29 seasons as the team\u2019s mentor. He moved to a front office position with Mitch Johnson taking over Popovich\u2019s former role.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst of all, the person,\u201d Wembanyama said. \u201cWe were all really close. We all have really good relationships between the teammates and him. It\u2019s always sad and shocking when something like this happens. What\u2019s incredible with him is that he keeps giving hope being the person that he is. He keeps inspiring us. Because the way he works, he works harder than most athletes in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maybe it was random for Hart to ask Wembanyama if he\u2019s a big Kevin Durant fan, to which the Spurs center replied, \u201cThat\u2019s right.\u201d<\/p>\n
Or maybe it wasn\u2019t, given the Spurs rank among the top teams that the Suns forward, who turns 37 in September, would prefer to be traded to before next season. Wembanyama said Durant\u2019s game has inspired him all of his life, but Hart and Wembanyama stopped short of a sales pitch to keep the conversation tamper-free.<\/p>\n
(Photo: Larry Holder \/ The Athletic)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 Just your average Saturday in Midtown Manhattan, where Victor Wembanyama and Kevin Hart lounged shirtless…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3479,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[392,1260,3138,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-3478","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-culture","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-san-antonio-spurs","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114723658466057164","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}